_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/          
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--             
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _             
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|            
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                   
                                                          /                    
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                     
 

SUCCESSFUL KICK MOTOR TEST

The first test of the M-V rocket's kick motor was made on the 28th of September at Noshiro, ISAS's rocket testing facility in Akita prefecture. The kick motor (length 1.4m, diameter 1.2m, weight 1.4 tonnes) is used to boost the satellite into an orbit with the desired apogee. The Reaction Control System is then used to raise the perigee of the orbit. The test firing lasted approximately 80 seconds and was a resounding success.

COMPATIBILITY and TRACKING TESTING

Compatibility testing in the U.S.A. for the K-band telemetry stations concluded last week. Most of the scheduled testing was able to be carried out, with the whole exercise being described as very valuable. Late next year the SURFSAT-1 spacecraft will be launched as a secondary payload on a NASA rocket. Designed, built, tested and integrated by undergraduate college students participating in Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (from whence the spacecraft's name), the spacecraft will carry low power radio transmitters for testing NASA tracking stations and deep space communication R&D. It is envisaged that pre-launch tracking station tests for the VSOP mission will also be carried out using SURFSAT.

NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY (NAO) POSITIONS

The NAO is able to host foreign researchers at both the research fellow and visiting professor levels. Basically these positions are for a one-year period. The VLBI section of NAO is collaborating closely with ISAS on the VSOP project, and is happy to receive applications for positions at either level. Please contact Makoto Inoue at NAO for further details.

U-DEN-KON

A meeting of the Japanese Radio Astronomical Community was held in ISAS at the end of last month. Proceedings were dominated by discussions about the proposed Japanese Large Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Array (see e.g. Nature, 1st Sept. 1994, page 5), however a full session was also dedicated to VLBI and VSOP matters.

LUNAR-A and HOKKAIDO

The ISAS LUNAR-A satellite engineering model has arrived at ISAS this week for vibration testing. After the "shake-down" at ISAS the spacecraft will be taken to NASDA's acoustic testing facilities. LUNAR-A is scheduled as the second launch with the M-V rocket.

The island of Hokkaido received some vibration testing on Tuesday evening, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred 150 km off-shore. The quake, easily felt in Tokyo, fortunately did not produce a tsunami of the same destructive size as that following a quake in a similar area last year.

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi